Duties raised to boost Make in India

The government has revised basic customs duties to as much as 100% of a number of products to encourage domestic processing and manufacturing in the country. These include imported food and grocery items, shoes, ceiling fans, wooden furniture, kitchenware, appliances, hairdryers, shelled walnuts and other items.  Duty on imports of fully built and semi and completely knocked down electric vehicles has also been raised by 5-15 percentage points. In addition, duty has been imposed on items such as sacramental wine and angostura bitters. Basic customs duty has been doubled to 20% from 10% on printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) for feature phones. Duty on shelled walnuts, durum wheat seeds and margarine has been raised to 100%.